Forbes: Pandora Valued At Nearly $1 Billion

April 28, 2011 at 4:26 AM (PT)

FORBES reaffirms PANDORA's place as a WALL STREET darling, and values the company at $984 million, writing "As of JANUARY 2011, PANDORA had over 80 million registered users, adding a new registered user almost every second. PANDORA has over 50% market share in internet radio listening time among the top 20 stations and networks in the UNITED STATES."

Why such success? FORBES cites, "PANDORA's number of registered users has grown considerably in the past few years. The firm’s unique ability to develop programs that cater to the tastes of individual music listeners has driven user growth. On top of that, increased smartphone usage has helped grow PANDORA's mobile platform as well. In 2008 it accounted for less than 10% of listener hours, however by the early part of 2011 this figure had increased to over 50%."

FORBES also notes PANDORA is continually working to strengthen its partnerships with consumer electronics manufacturers and has an ongoing system to grow its presence in the automobile market for integration of PANDORA's music services in automobiles.

Beyond listenership, PANDORA "has positioned itself to become a useful advertising platform for various institutions," wrote FORBES.

Why? "The strong user base, growth in streaming hours and diversity in user base has attracted many advertisers. The firm enables both local and national advertisers to reach listeners based on their demographics and music type and offers advertisers the ability to choose from a variety of advertisement products which include display, audio and video advertising. PANDORA's mobile app is currently one of the most widely used, adding to the attractiveness of the platform to advertisers," concludes the report.